More resources needed for preschool education

(Baonghean) - Preschool facilities have been invested in for a long time, while the increasing learning needs of children have put great pressure on schools in receiving and improving the quality of care and education for children at this level.

Lack and weakness

Cua Nam Kindergarten (Vinh City) is not located in the central area, but in recent years it has been under pressure in enrollment. Although the school has 2 floors, it is currently located in the ward cultural house with a usable area of ​​only 650 m2, without a playground for children. With such conditions, the school only arranges 7 groups of classes, and 2 groups of classes are arranged to study in the cultural house of grades 13 and 14. The principal, vice principal and accountant share a cramped office. There are no functional rooms such as medical, music, tradition room, physical education... Because the school was built in 2002, it is now degraded, the classrooms do not have a back corridor, the front corridor is cramped and lacks light.

In addition, the sanitation facilities, according to regulations, have 1 toilet for 10 children, but currently at the school there are 2 toilets for every 40-45 children. On the other hand, because it is located in the same campus of the ward cultural house, there are often many activities of the ward, greatly affecting the teaching and living of teachers and children. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thoa, the school's principal, due to the lack of and weak facilities, the school is currently only able to accommodate about 360 children, with each class group having 30-38 children of nursery age and 40-45 children of preschool age, but it is already overloaded. Meanwhile, the learning needs of children in the ward are very large. According to the annual universal survey results, in the ward there are about 1,300 children of preschool age, of which about 450 children study in private preschools and family childcare groups.

Children's hand washing area at Nghia Loi Kindergarten (Nghia Dan).

Not only Cua Nam Kindergarten but also all kindergartens in the city are in the same situation of "overload", leading to some schools such as Ha Huy Tap, Le Mao... having to draw lots when recruiting new students. Ms. Le Thi Phuong, Deputy Head of Preschool Department, City Department of Education and Training, said: Currently, the whole city has 28 public kindergartens and 27 private schools. In terms of school system, it is quite large, however, the current problem is that most public schools are small in scale, only 3-4 schools ensure the class size according to regulations of 18-20 classes, the rest have only 9-15 classes.

The current difficulties and problems are due to limited area, while some schools were originally designed to have only 2 floors, so upgrading is not possible; on the other hand, according to regulations, kindergartens can only be built up to 3 floors. Therefore, some kindergartens have very limited facilities, cramped campuses, no functional rooms, and inadequate toilets. In particular, there are 2 wards, including Le Loi and Hung Phuc, which currently do not have public kindergartens, so families are having to send their children to study in neighboring wards or private schools. Currently, the mobilization rate of children in nursery schools is 27.8% and kindergarten is 91.4% (while the demand is 100%).

Teachers at Cua Nam Kindergarten (Vinh City) redecorate their classrooms in preparation for the new school year.

The problem of insufficient and weak preschool facilities does not only occur in Vinh City, where the population is dense and land fund is limited, but it also occurs in many other localities in the province. Giang Son Commune (Do Luong) was split into two communes, Giang Son Dong and Giang Son Tay, in 2007. Accordingly, the preschool was also split into two. Giang Son Tay Preschool was built in 2009, a level 4 building consisting of 5 solid classrooms and 1 temporary classroom, 1 office room from the cooperative's house. The school has a kitchen, only 20 m2, serving the cooking of meals for boarding children. The school has many "no"s: no functional rooms, principal's room, vice principal's room, medical room, library, accountant, security guard, warehouse, toilet in each classroom (there is only 1 toilet shared for the whole school)...

Ms. Thai Thi Thu Hoai, Principal of Giang Son Tay Kindergarten, said: Due to limited facilities, out of a total of 407 preschool-age children, the school can only accept 250 children, with priority given to children aged 4-5, divided into 9 groups of classes, including 6 groups at the school and 3 groups of classes at the cultural houses of the hamlets. As for the kindergarten group, the school focuses on propaganda so that parents can share difficulties with the school. Mr. Nguyen Tat Tay, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Do Luong district, said that in recent years, the district and localities have made efforts to build facilities for preschools, but in reality, they have not yet met the requirements. Some schools such as Giang Son Dong, Giang Son Tay, and Tru Son kindergartens do not have enough classrooms and are having to borrow cultural houses of hamlets to organize teaching. Thuan Son, Trung Son, Dang Son, Yen Son, Minh Son kindergartens have inadequate facilities, failing to meet the minimum requirements for educational activities. Some schools met standards 5 years ago, but now their level 4 facilities have deteriorated...

More resources needed for preschool education

In general, the preschool facilities are still the weakest compared to other levels of education. Especially in the areas of Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, the number of temporary classrooms is relatively large, with classes for 2-3 age groups. Socialization work is still facing difficulties, and the investment budget for this level of education has not met the demand. According to incomplete statistics of the Department of Education and Training, the whole province currently has only about 53.6% of solid preschool classrooms and the number of temporary classrooms is still high, with 346 rooms, of which 100 are classrooms for 5-year-old children. The reason is that for a long time, preschool has not been included in the public general education system of Vietnam, so investment is also limited, lacking a foundation (the level comes later), leading to difficulties in planning and investing in building facilities and classrooms.

In order to develop preschool education in the province as required, playing the role of the first level of education in the national education system, the Provincial People's Council issued Resolution No. 70/2012/NQ-HDND and the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 06/2013/QD-UBND-VX on approving the Education and Training Development Plan of Nghe An, period 2012 - 2020. Accordingly, the goal is to strive to achieve universal preschool education standards for 5-year-olds before 2015. Increase the rate of mobilizing children of nursery age to go to school to 25% in 2015 and 30% in 2020. The number of children aged 3 to 5 years old going to preschool will reach 95% in 2020, of which 100% of 5-year-old children will go to school. Strive to increase the rate of kindergartens meeting national standards to 55% by 2015 and 70% by 2020.

Accordingly, each locality has also set goals and targets to focus on leadership and direction to develop this level of education. For example, Do Luong district has issued the Project for Education Development for the period 2010-2015; Project for Building National Standard Schools for the period 2011-2015, including preschools. At the same time, attention has been paid to land planning for preschool education, with an average minimum of 15m2/child (many units have 20m2/child). The District People's Council has issued a resolution to support funding for schools to build national standard schools, in conjunction with mobilizing resources from the program of consolidating schools and classrooms, projects and mobilizing social resources to build schools and classrooms. The number of separate schools in kindergartens, from 5-7 separate schools (many schools mostly borrow the village cultural house to teach), up to now, most of them have only 2 schools/school, many schools have concentrated in 1 school (from 107 schools in 2010, now there are 67). The whole district has built more than 150 solid classrooms with an investment of nearly 80 billion VND, mainly from the commune and town budgets and people's contributions. Therefore, the facilities of kindergartens have been gradually improved.

However, compared to the requirements, the facilities in general in kindergartens cannot meet the requirements. Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoan, Deputy Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training, said that, in parallel with the Department's recommendation to the Ministry of Education and Training to continue allocating resources for the project of universalizing education for 5-year-old children to improve the facilities for kindergartens, the province is recommended to continue to have support policies for organizations and individuals to invest in building private schools to reduce the burden on public schools. Along with that, localities need to promote socialization in building facilities, to ensure classroom space, renovate and repair to overcome the deterioration and damage of current toilets in schools.

In order for preschool education to effectively nurture, care for, and educate children to develop comprehensively in terms of physical, emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic aspects, it is necessary to have school facilities and spacious classrooms that meet the standards set by the Ministry of Education and Training. To do this, in addition to state budget support at all levels, this level of education needs to be more and more socialized to quickly overcome the shortcomings and inadequacies in facilities, creating conditions for all children to have the right to go to class and enjoy a comprehensive educational environment at the first level of education in the national education system.

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